“Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one come to you without leaving happier.”

~ Mother Teresa

Yesterday, I was hunting for Great-Aunt Elizabeth’s hermit cookie recipe — my Aunt Sally up in Maine was hoping I had it.

As a child, I remember Aunt Elizabeth serving her fresh-baked cookies on proper English china, in her Victorian-era apartment, in a rambling yellow boarding house in Pittsfield, Maine. Aunt Elizabeth was known for baking, as well as her corrections to my early English-writing attempts. (How many 8-year-olds get their letters returned with spelling and punctuation corrected?)

Thanks to her, I went on to become a fairly good speller in life. With Aunt Elizabeth, you toed the line. And spelled it correctly, too!

Thumbing through my parents’ little handed-down black notebook filled with Royal typewriter painstakingly-pecked recipes, as well as hand-written ones, I have yet to find “the recipe.”

Naturally, one thing led to another as I fell down Alice’s rabbit hole into recipe Wonderland. Brittle yellowed newspaper clippings were stuck willy-nilly here and there: how to make homemade wine. Tuna dinner. Hamburger salami.

1970 apple pie and homemade ice cream — recipes for both. Kool-Aid punch. How to make your own graham crackers.

After decades of holding on to these recipes, I admit they’re going in the trash. I am not making my own graham crackers, tomato aspic, not making hamburger salami, and it’s doubtful I’m going to get the energy to churn my own ice cream ever again. It was fun when I was a kid. Now I’m older and lazier, it’s just too easy to stick a spoon in Talenti vanilla bean or double chocolate gelato and moan in bliss.

Rooting through piles of recipes, the hunt escalated into a favorite Taste of Home meatloaf recipe: which led to dinner after stopping down at Thompson’s store for ground beef — then another hustle back to town to find buttermilk for biscuits to accompany the meatloaf, mashed taters and peas.

You see, it’s downright dangerous to hunt one recipe, because it steamrolls into a runaway train.

I need to make that! No, I need to make this! NO: I’m going to put all these back in a jumbled heap and fergetaboutit. Too much work!

• Saluda Welcome Table at Saluda Methodist Church is every Tuesday from 5:30-6:45 p.m.

• Learn about Saluda Community Land Trust by visiting saludaclt.org or calling 828-749-1560. There won’t be a “Walks in the Woods” on Easter Sunday. For more information on joining walks, contact Chuck Hearon at 828-817-0364 or chearon@skyrunner.net.

• Saluda’s Historic Depot is open Tuesday-Saturday 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday noon to 4 p.m. Admission is free. Donations can be made by mailing to Saluda Historic Depot, P.O. Box 990, Saluda, NC 28773 or SaludaHistoricDepot.com.

• Saluda’s Easter Egg Hunt (sponsored by Saluda’s Welcome Table) is March 31 (rain or shine)  in the vacant lot across from Memorial Park, 2-4 p.m. Age groups are 0-4 years; 5-8 years; and 9-12 years. For information, call 828-749-3789.

• Saluda Get-Well goes to Rita Igoe, Cissy Thompson, Doris Marion, and Mary Ann Asbill.

• Happy March Birthday to: Faye Chandler, Genell Jespersen, Charlene Pace, Valerie Mintz, Sheldon Mintz, Curtis Pace, Anita Odgen Moore, Charles Weinhagen,  Kevin Kerr, Dorrie McKinley, Catherine Ross, Jane Fox, Beverly Pickard, Monica Pace, Ken Justus, Elizabeth Justus,  Arlene Klippel, Rachel Bradley, Chris Bradley,  Martha Stoney Anderson, Dawn Ward, Peggy Wolf, Dori Ray, Martin Anderson, Lucy Holman, Craig Bass, Laura Bass, Patty Martin, Dana Browning and Tangie Morgan. Please add your birthday to the list — no ages mentioned unless you’re under 2 or over 100!

Thank you for reading this column; as ever, the goal is to make you feel like you’re enjoying small town life in a friendly mountain town called Saluda. Feel free to contact me at bbardos@gmail.com, 828-749-1153, or visit bonniebardosart.com.